Tiffany Favrile Pottery was developed in the first years of the 20th century, shortly after Louis Comfort Tiffany returned from the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris where he was influenced by displays of antique Chinese and Japanese ceramics and their subsequent interpretation by Art Nouveau ceramicists. Tiffany worked with the artists and scientists at Tiffany Studios to develop formulas for distinctive glazes and designs, including a select group of the “Tiffany Girls.”
This rare vase features a motif in low relief of rounded wisteria seed pods surrounded by delicately veined leaves and thin vines descending from the thin rim of the vessel. The vase features a variegated green glaze with accents of blue-green along the lower, rounded portion of the body.
A watercolor sketch of this form for a version in enamel-on-copper by Julia Munson, one of the first “Tiffany Girls” working in Tiffany’s Enamel and Pottery department who later went on to design jewelry for Tiffany & Co., with a series of working annotations by Leslie Nash, is held by the Tiffany & Co. Archives. That sketch is illustrated in Louis Comfort Tiffany at Tiffany & Co. by John Loring. Nash’s notations indicate that Tiffany won an award for this design in Paris, possibly at one of the Salons.
The enamel-on-copper version of this vase is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (80.172). It was previously in the collection of John W. Mecom, Jr.
This rare and important example of Tiffany Favrile Pottery is inscribed on the underside.
Height: 6 ½ inches (16.5 cm)
References:
Martin Eidelberg, Tiffany Favrile Pottery and the Quest of Beauty, New York, 2010, pp. 40 and 85, fig. 23
John Loring, Louis C. Tiffany at Tiffany & Co., New York, N.Y. : Harry N. Abrams, 2002, pg. 115
